Our 2015 – 2016 Curriculum

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Originally posted on our homeschool blog, Benoit Academy.

We have just started back to homeschool yesterday (8/24) and the day went a lot smoother than I had imagined! L10 woke up and went straight to his computer wanting to start his lessons right away. I was shocked though he is the kind of person who likes to get things done and ‘out of the way’ so he can play. The girls weren’t so quick to start, they are not morning people like their mama. However, they still didn’t pitch a fit when it was time for them to get started. For being the first day of school as well as a Monday, the day was a great day! Somehow I totally flaked on the First Day of School pictures. I guess I am becoming more and more lazy each year, which is NOT a good thing. I need to work on that.

This school year will be simple for us. We were able to review the Time4Learning curriculum a while back and since the kids enjoyed it so much, we decided to go back to it and buy it to use as our full curriculum. If you decide to try T4L, be sure to put down the name of person who referred you on the last step of the sign up process, so they can get credit for the referral. You can use mine (Jess Benoit) and I will receive a $25 credit. This goes for you as well if you refer anyone after becoming a member!

J14 wasn’t too crazy about the Math section of it
and so we took that area out of her plans on T4L. She reviewed UnLock Math over the summer and it has been working for her so we are continuing that for her. UnLock Math breaks down math into bite-sized chunks so it’s easier to comprehend. You can read our full review by clicking the link above.

As for M8, she is still really struggling with Reading. I was able to get a used set of All About Reading sets 1 & 2 and I bought the Letter Tiles and Magnets to go along with it. You do not have to have the Letter Tiles but they are a great addition to the lessons for a fun hands-on approach. I tried to make my own, they were a disaster. It was much easier to just buy these! We also have the Readers that go with each set and M8 likes to read these on her own. They go along with the lessons so they are a smooth transition for her. She gets frustrated easily and will give up with a fight so these make her feel great!

For Foreign Language, J14 has decided on her own to learn French. My husband’s side of the family is French so she wanted to learn about their culture and language. We were able to review Babbel for that and she is continuing that. You can read more about that here.

We love to let our kids explore their interests:

M8 loves to cook and bake so we like to sneak in as much learning as possible – math, science, and so much more! She also loves painting and will paint all over my empty shipping boxes. We are always needing to restock our paints!

L10 is interested in computers and gaming. It’s no surprise that he wants to learn how to make his own games so he has been dabbling in that. He is also interested in video making so J14 has been working with him on that.

J14 is an amazing artist so we bought her a drawing tablet this past Christmas. Her drawing skills have gone through the roof since then and is even working with an author of an e-book on the illustrations! This will be a great addition to her transcripts when she applies to her school of choice, Full Sail University. She is also very much into History and randomly makes her own slideshows and presentations on whoever she is interested in at that moment. She has made them on the Victorian Era and Leonardo da Vinci, just to name a few. She is able to help L10 with videomaking because she does that as well on her own. She uses a program already on her pc to make YouTube videos. They are usually music videos that go along with her favorite video games, movies, and TV shows.

Incentives

The hubs just made a deal with the kids to keep them on track and make them want to work on their lessons each day. We are known to take a day off here and there for no reason so this will help keep me on track as well! Little incentives here and there are always fun and makes them work harder for goals, such as reading a book for M8 and L10 while J14 has to work extra hard on her Math. With this in mind, I need to make some sort of sticker board for M8 and L10 and something else for J14 to keep track of our school days, reading, and Math progress. After so many days of school with no problems we get to have a pizza party and after a large number of days they get to choose their restaurant of choice to go out and celebrate their hard work! Dad even said that after the whole school year is complete, on time and with awesome grades, he will give the money.

So now you have a look at how our school year will go this year. I’d love to hear about your plans for your school year as well. Let me know in the comments below and we wish you the very best school year ever!